Stories From America: America's Last Colony: 004-NS-LEP-Jack--Rachel

Rachel Pendleton expresses her anger and frustration of being incarcerated as she explains in a Life Magazine article, written by Johnathan Silvers.

"I was kidnapped on March 16, 1949. I was yanked from my parents' arms. A nurse pushed them away, and she and a deputy sheriff took me to Carville. I was 14. I had some nodules on my face and my ears that the Texas Department of Health diagnosed as leprosy. They wanted me out of the state. My parents were poor, so they couldn't do anything about it except cry. How do you do this to a child--to anyone? I hate this place with a passion. There is no reason for it to exist. It stole my life from me--my youth, my liberty, the love of my mother and my father, the fellowship of my brothers and sisters. I'll never forgive them for that."